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ETD News - March 1999 Page 2 of 2 Country News Telework Profile Higher in Ireland Imogen Bertin The Irish television programme Tech TV, which has an average audience of 140,000, included a special segment on teleworking devised in conjunction with ETD assistant national coordinator Imogen Bertin to mark European Teleworking Week. The programme looked at a number of teleworking case studies and visited the Disability and Teleworking conference organised by ETD. Tech TV is sponsored by the Irish government's Information Society Commission, which also badged the conference. ETD in Ireland is currently working with selected web-based recruitment services to raise the profile of teleworking as an option for IT workers. The IT industry in Ireland is beginning to encounter skill shortages, yet the country still has low rates of participation in the workforce by women, and there is little IT work available outside the largest cities. "Anything which increases the number of successful recruitments is good for the jobsite operators", comments Imogen Bertin, "so we are working with them to promote the teleworking option to their clients, the IT employers, and to lead them to useful information such as the guidelines for HR managers that we have produced with the employers' federation IBEC. At the same time we will promote awareness with the prospective employees through information on the jobsites". Promoting Flexible Working Telecom Eireann, the former state telephone company which will shortly change its name to Eircom in preparation for stock market flotation, plans a major promotion of mobile and flexible working that will include business breakfasts in Dublin and Cork and competitively priced packages of equipment and solutions. The campaign will be carried out in conjunction with its mobile subsidiary Eircell. Telecom also plans new marketing activities on ISDN including "fast track" technical support, and says that recent customer research indicates 48% of its top SME customers are already working part of the time outside the conventional office - the promotion of teleworking therefore continues to represent an important opportunity for market development. Recent information society and teleworking developments in Ireland can be reviewed on the CWU website http://www.cwu.ie. Reports include the recommendations of the government's Telecommunications Advisory Group on developing e-commerce in Ireland (such as the introduction of "dialtone" or flat rate Internet charges), and a summary of Ireland's competitiveness in the Information Age prepared by Matt Toolan. Proceedings of the November Disability and Teleworking conference will also shortly be released on the website. Email: imogen@ctc.ie (Imogen Bertin) Greece Constantine Dikaios, Epsilon New Law Supports Teleworking Following the approval of the Greek Parliament last summer, a new law has been passed that officially recognises teleworking as an alternative type of work. Law 2639/98 also sets a legal framework describing obligations and rights for both employers and employees. Special event to promote teleworking in Greece On 13th January a one day workshop "Teleworking in Greece" took place at the Athens Hilton. It was organised by the Federation of Hellenic Information Technology Enterprises (FHITE). The main speakers were the Minister of Labour, the Minister of Telecommunications and the President of the FHITE. This was the first occasion that two Ministers were the main speakers for the presentation and promotion of teleworking in Greece. Minister of Labour Mr. Miltiadis Papaioanou, cited the following reasons as responsible for earlier delays in introducing teleworking in Greece: Lack of information about teleworking Conservative attitudes by employers promoting telework Lack of a legal framework introducing telework Low level of education, especially in information technologies Quality of existing telecommunications infrastructure and services. Mr. Papaioanou added to the above the fact that Greece is characterised by the highest level of employment in agriculture in Europe, the lowest per capita GDP and the lowest proportion of information workers. The Minister also noted that 500 German teleworkers are located in Mani, Peloponnisos and working for their companies. Additional speakers were Mr. Peter Johnston, Head of Unit DGIII-B, EC, Mr. John Koukiadis, expert in teleworking, member of EC committees, and others. The workshop sponsored by the IBM, INTRAKOM, COMPAQ, 3 NET, STAT and other Greek companies specialising in telecommunications, Internet and information technology. The conference was a significant success and the participants covered a wide range of information technology companies, mobile phone providers, Internet providers, the National Organization of Telecommunication (OTE) and others. The TV, radio and newspapers extensively reported the event. Epsilon presents to the participants the ETD, the actives of the project, the activities of Epsilon towards to promote teleworking in Greece and also distributed the ETHOS Newsletter, Teleworking Reports and other material. Email: epsilon@hol.gr The Telework Debate - Online Jack Nilles, often hailed as the originator of the telework concept and now one of the world's leading telework consultants and authors, will be the first Guest in a new series, The Telework Debate, to be hosted at European Telework Online. This first debate will debate telework issues and opportunities on the Internet, and take place from 15-17 February 1999 at the European Telework Online web site. It will focus on issues and opportunities raised in Nilles' new book "Managing Telework: Strategies for the Virtual Workforce", recently cited as a "Star Buy" by the European Telework Development initiative. How many teleworkers? One question certain to create attention is the big difference in responses to telework between Europe and the USA. Although teleworkers in Europe doubled from two to four million between 1997-1998, this is still less than half the number in the USA, which has a smaller total workforce. Another question is why responses to telework vary so greatly between countries generally - Nilles' own estimates show the UK and Ireland in a clear lead among EU countries; why should this be so? And he believes the USA will still account for one third of all teleworkers in OECD countries out as far as 2030 - why will the USA continue to move so much faster than others? The Debate is open to all, if you are not already a member of the Forum you can join the 500 members from 60 countries for just the period of the debate or remain a member as long as you wish. (The next article tells you more about the forum). You will have the choice to receive all contributions by email as they are made, or collected in a single daily batch, or you can visit the debate on the web. This debate coincides with the launch of the new European Information Society Technologies (IST) Programme, which has a special focus on New Ways and Methods of Working. The second Guest in the series will be Dr Peter Johnston, Head of Unit C1 at DGXIII, who has overall responsibility for the New Methods of Work theme in the IST Programme. Details Dates: 15-17 February 1999 Forum: European Telework Discussion Forum, http://www.eto.org.uk/discuss/nilles.htm Guest: Jack Nilles, Jala International, California Chair: Maarten Botterman, European Commission DG XIII, Unit C1 New Methods of Working For information about the book, Managing Telework (European Telework Online's current "Star Buy" selection): http://www.eto.org.uk/books The European Telework Agenda The European Telework Agenda provides a common perspective and window onto the many policy and support activities through which the European Commission, other European Institutions and market organisations can work together to increase awareness of telework and help individuals and enterprises to adopt it successfully. The Agenda brings together information about and pointers to telework related activities in the fields of: Policy development Public programmes Key events Facilities and resources The most recent printed version can be obtained from: telework@dg13.cec.be The Agenda is accessible online at: http://www.eto.org.uk/agenda/telework/ Telework '99: 6th European Assembly on Telework and New Ways of Working Aarhus, Denmark, September 1999 Jeremy Millard, Project Coordinator, European Telework Development Since 1994, the European Assembly on Telework and New ways of Working has been Europe’s largest and most important event and showcase for telework and new ways of working in the Information Society. In earlier years the Assembly has been held in Berlin, Rome, Vienna, Stockholm and Lisbon. In 1999 the Assembly comes to Denmark’s second city of Aarhus. The Assembly is supported each year by DGXIII of the European Commission, as well as national and local sponsors in the host country. In 1999, Commission involvement will be particularly relevant because the Assembly is timed to coincide with the launch of the first projects under the new Information Society Technologies Programme, within the Fifth Framework Programme for Research and Technology Development, in which telework and new methods of working constitutes one of four key actions. Telework and new ways of working is also receiving increased attention and support from other services within the European Commission, including DGV (responsible for employment and training) and various in initiatives of the Structural Funds such as the ADAPT Programme designed to support changes in the European labour force in order to address the issues and challenges of the 21st Century. The Assembly will be organised around an overall theme and five panels. Overall Theme: Making telework work for all the Scandinavian model: family, quality of life, community, learning the business case: e-commerce, gazelle companies, flexibility technology innovation: networking equipment and applications Panels Quality of life: telework as part of life - individual empowerment; the family; the community; social inclusion; sustainability and transport. The network economy: the business case for telework - global business; electronic commerce; knowledge management and innovation; SMEs; the public sector. Telework in practice: facilitating telework - the labour market; employment law and contracts; organisation and management; skills, competence and training; working conditions and physical facilities and access; insurance, tax, health and safety. Technology innovation: telework applications - Internet applications; mobile and remote systems; computer-supported cooperative work; management and trading systems; security and authenticity. The Danish/Scandinavian model: telework in context - the political dimension; learning and education; social partners and social dialogue; democracy and socio-cultural shift; networking in the 21st Century; making telework work for all. Check out the latest news at: http://www.telework99.dk Email: jeremy@post4.tele.dk Forthcoming Events 15-17 Feb: Jack Nilles Online. First Telework Debate online. Discussion in the European Telework Online discussion forum. http://www.eto.org.uk/discuss/discuss.htm 22 Feb: IST Programme Information Day, Paris. Launch event for the IST programme (European Fifth Framework Programme). http://www.eto.org.uk/fp5 23 Feb: IST New Methods of Work focus day, Paris. Community of interest meeting. Organised by the GAT (Telework) Chain of the ACTS Programme. http://www.eto.org.uk/gat/agendas/an990223.htm 25-26 Feb: Fifth Framework Programme general launch conference, Essen. Presenting the overall plans for the Programme. http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg12/fp5/conference.html 5 Mar: EITO Press Conference, Brussels. Publication launch of the 1999 edition. 25-27 Mar: Festival of Teleworking, Serre Chevalier, France. 31 Aug - 3 Sep: Telework Strategies for the New Workforce, 4th Annual Telework Workshop, Tokyo. http://www.iff.org/telework99 22-24 Sep: European Telework Assembly 1999, Aarhus, Denmark. http://www.telework99.dk 22-24 Nov 99: Information Society Technologies 99, Helsinki, Finland. Main showcase and conference for the IST Programme. http://www.ist99.fi/home.html Events relating to telework, teletrade and telecooperation, are listed online at: http://www.eto.org.uk/events/ where there is an open service for event organisers. New Look for Telework Online Forum The European Telework Online discussion forum provides an open meeting place for people with an interest in telework, not only across Europe but world-wide. The most consistently active and useful English language online discussion on this subject, it now has an archive of more than 3,000 messages, which is now being made available in a more fully searchable form for research and other purposes. Meanwhile the forum itself has been enhanced with useful new facilities: discussion can now be "threaded" in different topics subscribers can choose between using email or the world wide web special topic sub-groups can more easily be formed for email users, messages can be received as and when they are written, or batched so that you receive a set of yesterday's messages each morning The forum has, during its three year existence, sparked many ideas and follow through actions, including a rich and growing collection of Frequently Asked Questions - one of the most popular parts of the European Telework Online website. You can join the forum at: http://www.eto.org.uk/discuss/discuss.htm European Telework Online (ETO) http://www.eto.org.uk Recent Additions Recommended books, together with links for ordering. http://www.eto.org.uk/books/ Various presentations including 'New Work for Old', Horace Mitchell, Rationale and models for local economic and social development in a networked economy. http://www.eto.org.uk/etd/files/new-jobs 'New Methods of Work in Europe: A Snapshot', Horace Mitchell. Highlights the need for Europe to differentiate rather than emulate in telework and other aspects of the Information Society (presented at the Information Society Technologies conference, Vienna, November 1998) http://www.eto.org.uk/etd/files/ist98hm 'IST & EACN - European Community Networking in the Information Society Technologies Programme', Horace Mitchell. http://www.eto.org.uk/fp5/files/ist-eacn/ 27 Countries and 14 Languages Latvia recently became the 27th country to join The European Telework Online web site network. Additional partners are in the pipeline. The original aim was to construct a European network of national web sites for each country participating in the ETD initiative. However, the interest and value of national pages has resulted in the scope being extended to any collaborating web site world wide that commits to provide: Relevant national information on telework and related issues important in the country concerned. Selected European and ETD information in the local language. Many enthusiastic individuals and teleworking organizations have devoted their time and resources to make the ETO web network the most comprehensive teleworking resource in the world. We thank them for their contribution to this truly global effort. Current participants in the network (together with country codes) are: Austria - at Belgium - be Bulgaria - bg * Canada - ca Central & Eastern Europe - eec Czech Republic - cz * Denmark - dk * Finland - fi France - fr * Germany - de * Greece - gr * Hungary - hu * Ireland - ie Italy - it * Latvia - lv Luxembourg - lu Mediterranean Countries - med Netherlands - nl Norway - no Poland - pl * Portugal - pt * Russia -ru * Spain - es * Sweden - se * Switzerland - ch *(German) UK - uk Ukraine - ua * Indicates local language pages. To access the national pages go to http://www.eto.org.uk/nat for the index page, or go straight to your country page (in English), replacing xx with the country code shown above. http://www.eto.org.uk/nat/xx/ Most Popular Pages The following are the most popular individually read pages (index and home pages are excluded). 1. ETO Resources http://www.eto.org.uk/resource.htm 2. Telelavoro - Italian Telework Discussion List http://www.eto.org.uk/telelavoro/ 3. European Telework Status Report 1998 http://www.eto.org.uk/twork/tw98/ 4. European Telework Online United Kingdom http://www.eto.org.uk/nat/uk/ 5. Events Calendar Service http://www.eto.org.uk/events/ 6. FAQ: How Can I get Work As A Teleworker? http://www.eto.org.uk/faq/faq04.htm New links and home pages Following the formal sign off of the programme by the Council of Ministers in December 1998, the official home page for Europe's Fifth Framework Programme has changed to: http://www.cordis.lu/fp5/home.html The IST (Information Society Technologies) Programme home page is at: http://www.cordis.lu/ist/home.html Details with specific relevance to telework and related topics are at: http://www.eto.org.uk/fp5 Return To Contents List